Crystal Palace release statement on why they sacked manager Patrick Vieira and his entire bench

Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira and Mikel Arteta

 

After 20 months in command of Crystal Palace, Patrick Vieira has been dismissed from his position.

The Arsenal great depart Selhurst Park with the Eagles sitting in 12th place in the Premier League table, only three points above the teams currently in the bottom three of the standings.

There has been no announcement made by Palace about the replacement for Vieira or the official who will be in possession of Sunday's Premier League match versus Arsenal at the Emirates.

Jesse Marsch, who most recently managed Leeds, and Ralph Hasenhuttl, who most recently managed Southampton, are the early leading candidates for the post, although it is doubtful that a permanent replacement will be in place even before the game against Arsenal.

It was amusing that the dismissal of Vieira was revealed on Friday, March 17, which is also known as St. Patrick's Day.

Osian Roberts, Kristian Wilson, and Said Aigoun were part of Vieira's backroom team. All three of them have now departed Selhurst Park.

The position of goalkeeping coach will continue to be held by Dean Kiely. Steve Parish, chairman of the Palace, confessed: "This tough choice has been taken, and it has been done so with a great deal of grief.

"In the end, the outcomes from the previous several months have put us in a perilous league position, and we believed that a change was required in order to guarantee us the greatest opportunity of keeping our standing in the Premier League."

"In spite of this, Patrick has made a considerable contribution to our organization since he started working here in the summer of 2021, and I, along with the rest of his coworkers, hold him in the greatest respect."

"Last season, he guided the squad of players to a Wembley FA Cup semi-final and a good 12th-ranked finish while playing some entertaining football." This was a hard and essential challenge for the club considering the changes that we made to the team prior to his arrival.

"Patrick has given the club all he has, and for that, the whole membership is grateful to him and the rest of his staff." Also, we hope that Patrick, Osian, Kristian, and Saad's careers will be filled with success and happiness.

In July 2021, Palace announced that they had selected Vieira to replace Roy Hodgson. His first year in charge at Selhurst Park was a triumph, as he led the Eagles to a semi-final appearance in the FA Cup and a finish of 12th place in the Premier League. However, they were defeated by Chelsea in the final.

This season has gotten off to a strong start for Palace, as they have won five out of their initial thirteen Premier League matches, including a 2-1 triumph against London rivals West Ham.

Yet, since the World Cup in Qatar, they have just one victory to their name. In his final 11 games in command of the league, Vieira did not record a single victory.

Because of this, Palace is now in a fight to avoid being relegated. The Londoners are in a tough fight to survive in the league as they are just three points outside of the relegation zone, and each of the bottom nine clubs has a likelihood of remaining in the competition.

There is just a five-point gap between Southampton, which is now in 20th place, and Palace.

The loss to rivals Brighton on Wednesday, which was decided by one goal, was the last straw for Vieira. The failure of Palace to score was what led to his collapse.

They have netted only 21 goals in the Premier League so far this season, which is the fourth-worst performance in the league behind only Wolves, Everton, and Southampton (all scored 20 goals).

After the team's loss against Brighton, Vieira expressed his concern by saying, "Of course, when you generate opportunities but don't take them, you worry about that."

"The mentality of our front-line players has to be adjusted." "Moving ahead, we need to adopt a more combative attitude."

This outcome was enough to convince Parish to take action. On Thursday night, rumours circulated that the chairman of Palace was strongly contemplating firing Vieira. They turned out to be correct.